novitiate

Director: maggie betts

Actor: melissa leo,lisa stewart,alyssa brindley,chelsea lopez

Data Published: Fri Jan 20 2017

Genres: Drama

Key Words: nun,catholicism,lesbian,vatican two,year 1954

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4513316/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novitiate_(film)

Description: Novitiate is a movie starring Melissa Leo, Lisa Stewart, and Alyssa Brindley. Set in the early 1960s and during the era of Vatican II, a young woman in training to become a nun struggles with issues of faith, the changing church and...

Plot: This is a story of the effect of Vatican II (1962-65) on the Church, as seen in one convent, through the eyes of the tough old-fashioned Mother Superior, the kinder, younger, and more modern nuns, and the Postulants and Novitiates, particularly Sister Cathleen. Cathleen Harris was born in Tennessee in the 1950s. Her mother, Nora, a factory worker, is non-religious but wanted to show Cathleen a church and let her make her own decision. Cathleen's father, Chuck, comes home late, drunk, and argues with his wife. Finally, Chuck leaves home, Nora supports herself, and picks up a series of men for one-night stands. Cathleen says she is looking for love, and finds it in the Catholic church. The Catholic school offers her a full scholarship, where a young nun befriends her and describes how she is married to Christ. After running into another one of her mother's pickups, Cathleen decides to give her life to God. With 20 other girls, Cathleen joins the Sisters of the Beloved Rose. She will be a postulant for 6 months, after which she will become a novitiate for a year and a half, and then take her final vows. The Abbess, Reverend Mother Marie Saint-Clair, is a "tough, old style" Mother Superior, who trains and disciplines the postulants. She leads the postulants through a meeting called the "Chapter of Faults," in which they must publicly confess to all their faults, including the accusations of the other postulants, for which Mother Superior assigns extreme, humiliating penances, including "The Discipline," a knotted whip that they use to flagellate themselves. She makes arbitrary judgments, reduces the postulants to tears, and sends them home from the convent for trivial infractions. Sister Mary Grace, a young, warm, kind, and progressive nun, is the Postulant Mistress, who tries to make life easier for them. Most of the day is serious and disciplined, but sometimes the postulants fall into girlish activities and giggling. Mother Superior keeps getting envelopes from Archbishop McCarthy about Vatican II, which she ignores. Sister Mary Grace sees the documents, and says that change would be good. Mother superior cuts her off with, "The Church is perfect exactly the way it is." Later, they argue, and Sister Mary Grace challenges Mother Superior's authority. Sister Mary Grace goes off to pray, and decides to leave the convent. Finally Archbishop McCarthy pays a visit. He tells Mother Superior that "this order in particular" is having difficulty embracing the changes of Vatican II. She dismisses the "ridiculous reforms." He tells her that if she can't adopt to the changes, she will be replaced. As for "that old medieval stuff," the extreme penances, "That's gotta stop." Mother Superior is devastated. Her world has changed. She fears God has abandoned her. At the Chapter of Faults, a novice confesses that she questions whether God is real. Mother Superior tells her she's tired of hearing her spiritual wretchedness and assigns her to no penance at all. Eventually, Mother Superior calls the congregation and reads aloud the Archbishop's memo about Vatican II. Priests will read the Mass in English, and face the congregation. Catholics must embrace religious tolerance. Nuns are no longer required to wear habits, but can wear whatever they want – and their status is now reduced and equal to any Catholic. Extreme punishments and suffering are forbidden. They are not an act of love, or desired by God. Of the original 20 postulants, only 5 are left to profess their final vows. The priest asks one of the noviates the ritual question, "What do you seek." She answers that she wants to take her vows and marry Jesus Christ. He asks Cathleen. She answers, "I seek something more."[3][4][1]